List of earthquakes in Guatemala

In addition, along Guatemala's western coast line, the Cocos plate pushes against the Caribbean plate, forming a subduction zone known as the Middle America Trench located approximately 50 km off Guatemala's Pacific coast.

This subduction zone led to the formation of the Central America Volcanic Arc, and is an important source of offshore earthquakes.

[3] The most destructive earthquake in recent Guatemalan history was the 1976 quake with a magnitude of 7.5 Mw and a hypocenter depth of just 5 km.

Surprisingly, the 7.9 Mw earthquake of 1942, though higher in magnitude, was much less destructive, in part because of its substantially deeper hypocenter depth of 60 km.

[4] A number of earthquakes with low magnitudes caused major damage in very localized areas, which may in part be explained by their relatively shallow depth.